ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Trade between Turkey and Israel will not resume until a permanent ceasefire comes into force in the Gaza Strip and humanitarian aid can be delivered there without obstruction, the Turkish Minister of Commerce said on Friday.
Israel’s intransigence and the deterioration of the situation in Gaza have left Turkey with no choice but to suspend its exports and imports, worth seven billion dollars per year, added Omer Bolat during a speech in Istanbul.
With this decision, announced Thursday evening, Turkey became the first major trading partner of Israel to suspend all of its trade with the Jewish state.
The announcement was welcomed by Palestinian Hamas and angered Israel, whose head of diplomacy, Israel Katz, accused Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan of behaving “like a dictator”.
(Reporting by Ceyda Caglayan, French version Tangi Salaün, editing by Sophie Louet)
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